


this boy

by Kit_Kat21



Series: Beatles Tribute [14]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 14:39:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17603234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_Kat21/pseuds/Kit_Kat21
Summary: He and Sansa have already talked about this. It’s important that their children know that they aren’t the best friends. They’re the parents. But they also want their children to know that they can trust them with anything. It’s a delicate balance and Jon has no idea how any parent figures it out, to be honest.





	this boy

…

 

At nearly five o’clock on the dot, the garage door opens and they can hear the familiar rumble of the pickup truck as it pulls slowly inside. Brandon, sitting at the kitchen table and working on his homework, lifts his head, his eyes frantically looking to his mom as she stands at the counter.

 

Sansa gives him a gentle smile. “Don’t be silly,” she then tells him as she takes the dishtowel from over her shoulder and wipes her hands on it.

 

Brandon nods and does his best to do just that – not be silly – as he looks down to his homework. He tries to concentrate on the numbers of the math problems on the worksheet, but all he can do is stare at them and listen as dad does what he does every other night when he comes home from work.

 

Once the garage door is shut once again behind him, Jon will gather his things from the front seat before climbing out of the truck, shutting the door behind him and clicking the lock, the _Beep! Beep!_ sounding off. He then comes up the steps, his boots heavy on the wooden planks, and he comes into the laundry room. Normally, Ghost and Lady would be right there to greet him, but tonight, they are outside in the backyard with George and Eleanor – who also would be greeting Jon, too, if they weren’t outside, playing on the playground set that Jon, with Edd, had built years earlier for Brandon when he was a much younger boy than he is now.

 

“I’m home!” Jon calls out like he does every other night and Brandon looks to Sansa again.

 

Sansa gives him a smile and then dropping the dishtowel onto the counter, she goes to meet Jon in the laundry room. Brandon can hear the low murmur of dad’s voice and whatever he says, it makes mom laugh.

 

“Hey,” Jon smiles when he comes out of the laundry room and sees Brandon at the table. Sansa comes out after him, carrying Jon’s thermos to the sink so it can be washed out later. “Have a good day at school?” Jon asks and gives Brandon a kiss on the head. “Oh, boy. Fractions?” He looks down to the math worksheet.

 

Brandon nods. “Will you help me?” Brandon thinks his dad is the absolute best at math; well, not as good as Uncle Bran, but no one’s as good at math as Uncle Bran, but dad definitely always helps him when it comes to problems with math homework.

 

“You know I will. Give me a second to get myself situated,” Jon smiles at him and Brandon smiles, too, but it isn’t long on his face before it’s gone again.

 

Leaving George and Eleanor to continue playing outside for the moment, Jon goes into the family room where both Julia and Max are, an episode of _Hubba Bubba Hotel_ on the television as it almost always is in the Snow home. Julia is trying to have a tea party with her plastic pink tea set and baby brother, but Max is not having it and keeps throwing his cup away, laughing each time as he crawls after it.

 

“Daddy!” Julia exclaims when he comes to them.

 

“Daddy!” Max echoes.

 

“Hello, sweetheart,” Jon smiles as she hurries to him, throwing her arms around his neck and Jon hugs her tightly, Max pushing himself to his feet to come hurrying over for a hug, too, Jon wrapping his other arm around him. “Have you been good for mama today?” Jon asks them both.

 

“Yes!” Julia exclaims and that’s what she always says when Jon asks the question every other evening – whether she and Max have actually been good or not.

 

“Mmmmm,” Jon smiles. “I’ll ask your mama about that.”

 

He kisses her on the head and then gives Max a kiss on his head as well before getting back to his feet.

 

After stopping off in the bathroom, he looks out the back door to watch George and Eleanor, with Ghost and Lady, for a moment, smiling as they scream, running all over the playground set.

 

Going into the kitchen then, he goes to Sansa as she stands at the counter, watching the timer on the oven counting down and pulling plates down from the cabinet. She smiles as Jon leans in, giving her a kiss on the corner of her jaw, on his way to the refrigerator for a can of Coke.

 

He’s tired after work, but he does his best to hide that from the kids and from Sansa, too. She works all day, too, and Jon never sees her even yawn. He’s sure she does, but not when he can see her. He has to wonder if she makes sure to never yawn in front of him to let him believe that she never gets tired.

 

There’s five of them and when they’re older, he doesn’t want them to look back and think of their dad always being tired and never able to do things with them when he got home from work. Brandon needs help with his homework. He and Sansa are just beginning to teach Max about the toilet. Dinner’s just about done. Eleanor and George have begun first grade that year and there’s always one story or another to listen to.

 

His and Sansa’s life is just too busy right now for him to be tired.

 

Drinking cans of Coke and cups of coffee help so that’s what he does.

 

“Alright,” Jon gives Brandon a smile as he settles down at the table with him. “Let’s take a look.”

 

Brandon moves the worksheet towards him so Jon can look over his work. He’s already done most of it and Jon looks over what he’s done now. There are numbers of shapes colored in and Brandon has to write down the fraction for each set of shapes.

 

“I don’t miss fractions,” Jon muses more to himself.

 

“I definitely won’t miss them,” Brandon shakes his head and Jon smiles at him, before looking over one problem and doing the addition quickly in his head to see if it’s right. “Dad, I need to talk to you.”

 

Jon instantly lifts his eyes to look at him. “Sounds serious.”

 

Brandon glances to Sansa, who’s pretending to not listen, but obviously is, and she gives Brandon a small, encouraging smile. Brandon gives the slightest nod before looking back to Jon.

 

“I don’t want you to get mad,” Brandon then says, almost too quiet for Jon to hear over the television in the family room, but Jon leans towards him, putting a hand to the back of his head.

 

“Hey,” Jon says and Brandon lifts his eyes to look at him. “I won’t be mad,” he promises him, having no idea what a ten-year-old could do that would make him worry about that; especially since Sansa seems to already know and she doesn’t seem to be angry or concerned so whatever Brandon has to talk to him about, how could it possibly make him mad?

 

“In my grade, we have the go-to-work with your parents day coming up,” Brandon begins.

 

“I remember,” Jon nods.

 

Sansa has a family calendar hanging on the side of their refrigerator that has everything in the Snow schedule written down. If it’s not written down on the calendar, it doesn’t exist – at least not to the Snow family. Brandon’s go-to-work day is at the end of this month and has been up for weeks now.

 

They haven’t talked about it yet. There’s still plenty of time for that, but Jon has just assumed that Brandon would be joining him on whatever construction site he’ll be at that day.

 

Obviously, that’s not the plan.

 

“I was wondering… I was going to talk to Grandpa Arthur, but I… I want to go to work with him instead,” Brandon says the last part in a rush of words; as if the faster he gets it out, the better.

 

Jon looks at him for a moment and he hates that Brandon looks so worried right now. He never wants his son – or any of his kids – to look this worried about telling him _anything_.

 

He and Sansa have already talked about this. It’s important that their children know that they aren’t the best friends. They’re the parents. But they also want their children to know that they can trust them with anything. It’s a delicate balance and Jon has no idea how any parent figures it out, to be honest.

 

“You thought I would be mad about that?” Jon wonders.

 

Brandon looks at him and doesn’t say anything for a passing beat.

 

Christ, he looks like his grandma and mom. Thank the Gods for that, Jon thinks, and it’s definitely not the first time he’s thought it and he already knows that it definitely won’t be the last.

 

Brandon has blue eyes and his copper hair is the same shade as Catelyn’s and he seems to have gotten his curls and nose from his Uncle Robb. As he has gotten older, Jon is aware that Sansa has started watching Brandon more and more closely like a hunting hawk; looking for _any_ sign of the man who gave the sperm.

 

But Jon’s not surprised that there never seems to be a stitch of Bolton in Brandon no matter what he does. Looks or personalities or interests. Tully, Stark and Snow and now, it seems like Dayne is there as well.

 

It makes Jon give him a small smile and when Brandon sees it, he smiles a little, too.

 

“I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings or think that I was choosing Grandpa Arthur over you,” Brandon explains and Jon chuckles a little, leaning back in his seat.

 

He takes a sip from his Coke can. “I would never think that, Brandon. I actually wonder why _I_ didn’t think of it myself sooner than this.”

 

“Really?” Brandon looks a little hopeful now.

 

“You’ve been obsessed with Grandpa Arthur and what he does since you were three,” Jon smiles. “I’m sorry that I didn’t think to suggest it and have you be nervous to tell me.”

 

“Every other kid in my class, they’re either going to work with their mom or dad, so I just figured that that’s what I had to do, too,” Brandon says and he still looks a little nervous to be saying that.

 

“What? You didn’t to go to the library with your mom?” Jon teases with a grin.

 

“Blech!” Brandon makes a face and Jon laughs.

 

“Hey!” Sansa gasps from where she’s still pretending to not listen. “You’d be lucky to come to the library with me, mister. You used to love coming to work with me when you were younger.”

 

“I didn’t know I had the option of _not_ going with you,” Brandon quips and Jon laughs again.

 

Brandon then gives Sansa an innocent smile and she narrows her eyes at him, pretending to be far more upset than she is; her smile breaking through ruining the effect.

 

Brandon then looks back to Jon, his smile fading. “So, it won’t upset you if I grow up and become a police officer instead of becoming a contractor?”

 

“Why do you think your mom and I had so many kids? One of them is bound to follow me into Snow Construction.” He is joking and Brandon knows he is because he smiles. “I will be so proud of you if you grow up to be a police officer, Brandon,” he then tells him and hopes that Brandon knows he completely means it. 

 

Brandon smiles now and he looks completely relaxed and relieved.

 

Without a word, he gets up and comes to Jon, hugging him, and Jon hugs him tightly, kissing his head. He hears Sansa sniffle in the kitchen. 

 

The oven timer begins to beep and Sansa tugs on her oven mitts before turning it off and then opening the door. From outside, Ghost and Lady have heard it, too, and they begin to bark. A moment later, they hear running steps on the back deck and then the door is opened with so much force, it flies back on its hinges and the doorknob slams into the wall behind it.

 

Jon and Sansa both cringe. It’s for that very reason that Jon has put a rubber stopper on the wall so the doorknob wouldn’t go through it constantly and Jon would be forever plastering. They tell the kids to not open the door like that, but George – to no one’s surprise – never seems to hear. And if he does, he never seems to remember. 

 

“Dinner!” George exclaims, breathlessly, just in case no one else heard the timer.

 

“George, take off your shoes!” Eleanor calls after her brother as George races through the kitchen, not even stopping to greet Jon, heading right for Sansa at the oven.

 

“Who knows?” Jon asks Brandon once they break from their hug.

 

Eleanor comes to Jon without her shoes and having hung her coat up on the hook on the wall next to the backdoor like Sansa tells them to. Jon swings her up into his lap to give her a kiss and Eleanor beams at him.

 

Jon nods his head towards George, who is hopping with excitement as Sansa tells him to be careful as she puts the very hot casserole dish down. “Maybe, one of these days, your brother will be your first arrest.”

 

…

 

 

The perfection of John Lennon's voice in this song...

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you!


End file.
